Bike-sharing startup ofo secures B+ round backed by Didi Chuxing

Beijing-based bike-sharing startup ofo announced on September 26 that the company has raised tens of millions of US dollars in its series B+ round backed by Didi Chuxing. As part of Didi’s Future City Sharing Transportation initiative, the car-hailing company plans to strategically cooperate with ofo on urban transportation sharing, and ofo’s bike service may be available on Didi’s platform in the future.

Within a year after its launch, the bike rental startup has built a fleet of nearly 70,000 bikes, and have completed 15 million rides and posted 500,000 daily orders on average.

The company received RMB 9 million in its Pre-A financing round supported by Will Hunting Capital and Dong Fang Hong Dao in late 2015. In January 2016, the company closed its A-round funding which had Didi’s early investor GSR Ventures as lead investor. The company also received tens of millions of US dollars in its B round funding which had Matrix Partners China as lead investor in June this year.

Riding the wave of bike-sharing, ofo’s competitors are also drawing investors’ interest. Beijing-based Mobike received millions of US dollars in series A round in October 2015 and raised tens of millions of dollars in series B round in August 2016. Shanghai-based YouBai, a bicycle rental platform, has also received millions of yuan in an angel round recently before going online. (Translated by Jerry)